We provide a consistent N = 4 Kaluza-Klein truncation of type IIB supergravity on general 5-dimensional squashed Sasaki-Einstein manifolds. Our reduction ansatz keeps all and only the supergravity modes dual to the universal gauge sector of the associated conformal theories, via the gauge/gravity correspondence. The reduced 5-dimensional model displays remarkable features: it includes both zero-modes as well as massive iterations of the Kaluza-Klein operators on the internal manifold; it contains tensor fields dual to vectors charged under a non-abelian gauge group; it has a scalar potential with a non-supersymmetric AdS vacuum in addition to the supersymmetric one.

We establish a supersymmetric consistent truncation of type IIB supergravity on the T 1,1 coset space, based on extending the Papadopoulos-Tseytlin ansatz to the full set of SU(2)×SU(2) invariant Kaluza-Klein modes. The five-dimensional model is a gauged N = 4 supergravity with three vector multiplets, which incorporates various conifold solutions and is suitable for the study of their dynamics. By analysing the scalar potential we find a family of new non-supersymmetric AdS 5 extrema interpolating between a solution obtained long ago by Romans and a solution employing an Einstein metric on T 1,1 different from the standard one. Finally, we discuss some simple consistent subtruncations preserving N = 2 supersymmetry. One of them still contains the Klebanov-Strassler solution, and is compatible with the inclusion of smeared D7-branes.

Under general assumptions, we show that a gravitational theory in d+1 dimensions admitting an AdS solution can be reduced to a d-dimensional theory containing a Lifshitz solution with dynamical exponent z=2. Working in a d=4, N=2 supergravity setup, we prove that if the AdS background is N=2 supersymmetric, then the Lifshitz geometry preserves 1/4 of the supercharges, and we construct the corresponding Killing spinors. We illustrate these results in examples from supersymmetric consistent truncations of type IIB supergravity, enhancing the class of known 4-dimensional Lifshitz solutions of string theory. As a byproduct, we find a new AdS4 x S1 x T(1,1) solution of type IIB.Comment: 29 pages, no figures; v2 minor corrections, a reference adde

We consider renormalization group flows between conformal field theories in five (six) dimensions with a string (M-theory) dual. By compactifying on a circle (torus) with appropriate boundary conditions, we obtain continuous families of confining fourdimensional theories parametrized by the ratio Λ flow /Λ QCD , with Λ flow the scale at which the flow between fixed points takes place and Λ QCD the confinement scale. We construct the dual geometries explicitly and compute the spectrum of scalar bound states (glueballs). We find a 'universal' subset of states common to all the models. We comment on the modifications of these models, and the corresponding fine-tuning, required for a parametrically light 'dilaton' state to be present. We also comment on some aspects of these theories as probed by extended objects such as strings and branes.